According to stats on ‘safe limits’ that the BMA pulled out of their nether orifice?

… and 11 per cent are alcohol dependant people.

And would be ‘alcohol dependant’ no matter how many pubs & clubs were around.

35 per cent of ambulance calls are related to alcohol.

70 per cent of peak-time accident and emergency admissions are alcohol-related.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’re wise to those stats now…

Quentin Dowse, associate director of public health at this area’s drug and alcohol action team, said the figures had been consistent over the past four years.

So, they aren’t rising? They aren’t falling?

And yet, the country’s supposed to be in recession. Go figure!

He said: “It is a worse problem here than many other towns and cities 70 per cent of peak-time accident and emergency admissions are alcohol-related. It is a massive problem and they affect the smooth operation of accident and emergency. Some are aggressive to staff and other patients, some of whom are children.”

Oh, good one! We must stop this FOR THE CHIIIILDREEEEN!

But what prompted this? Glad you asked:

Mr Dowse was speaking at the day-long hearing, which was held to consider three separate applications for extending opening hours at town centre public houses run by Grimsby Pubs Ltd.

Bring on the objections!

Humberside Police objected to all three applications, believing the bars would become “magnets” for crime and disorder.

A familiar story. But this time, they didn’t get their way:

However, the applications were approved on the condition police and the council were told 48 hours in advance of events running until 6am and these would be manned by three door supervisors.

“At Bank, we recognise there have been incidents of crime in the early evening which has been managed appropriately. At Walters, incidents of crime and disorder have occurred in the past but the current licence holder is managing this appropriately and there have been no incidents reported to police since the new management came in.

“At Musika, there is a lack of hard evidence submitted by the police to support their concerns of serious crime and disorder.”

Gosh! The police playing fast and lose with the facts? Get away!

Mr Kheng said the owners were surprised at the objection from Humberside Police and licensing officers because they had not objected to a 6am licence for Barcelona in Station Approach, Cleethorpes.
Mr Kheng said: “Barcelona is just as close to Cleethorpes railway station as The Bank is to Grimsby, but there were no objections to their 6am licence.”
He added all the incidents listed by Humberside Police had happened before 11pm.

Mr Kheng said they had been prepared to drop the applications for Walters and the Bank if police approved Musika. They asked the police to discuss the ‘trade off’ at a meeting before the hearing but the police did not attend.

After the hearing, Mr Kheng added: “If the police had spoken to us earlier this whole hearing could have been avoided. It has been a complete waste of time and public money. We offered to talk to them and would have withdrawn Walters and Bank if they had cooperated.”

Modern police forc- sorry, ‘services’ don’t cooperate. There’s only one way, theirs. And usually, their tame council placemen agree and nod through their demands. They didn’t here.